Your child does not speak: causes and what to do?
If your child does not speak, there can be various reasons. But it does not mean that it has to live completely without language. Here you can find out about the causes of muteness and read about how you can understand your child without words.
Your child does not speak: When should you act?
In general, whenever you suspect that something is wrong with your child’s language development, you should seek medical advice. Because the earlier a speech or language disorder is recognized, the better your child can be helped. Even if other causes, such as hearing impairment or a congenital malformation, are responsible for your child not speaking, early detection is important.
If your two-year-old isn’t speaking, that’s not necessarily a cause for concern. Although children of this age usually know a lot of words and can form simple sentences, there are so-called “late bloomers”. These are children who initially fail to speak but then suddenly start speaking. By the time they are three years old, they have usually caught up with their peers. Nevertheless, it makes sense to seek advice if your child does not speak at the age of two.
If your three-year-old or older child is not speaking, you should act immediately, get them examined by a doctor and receive appropriate treatment. At this age at the latest, your child’s silence indicates a developmental disorder. What triggers this and why exactly your child does not speak must be clarified by extensive investigations.
Your child does not speak: causes
If your child does not speak, it can have a variety of causes. The age of your child plays an important role in this. Normal language development runs through certain stages that your child should go through. You can find out more about this in our article “Learn to speak” . Possible reasons why your child is not speaking can be the following:
- ‘late bloomer’ : The start of speech is initially absent with “late bloomers”. At the age of two to three, however, these children suddenly start to speak and quickly catch up with their peers.
- Hearing impairment or deafness : Your child may not speak because they can’t hear. That is why an examination by an ear, nose and throat doctor is important. You can find out more about this in our article on hearing impairment in children .
- Speech development disorder : If your child does not speak, a speech development disorder can also be the reason. You can read more about this topic in our article ” Speech development disorder ” .
- Congenital muteness : This can be caused by a genetic defect, for example. The muteness is due to damage in the brain where the otherwise normally developed and intelligent child does not speak because he cannot control his organs of speech.
- Muteness due to physiological factors : If there is physical damage to the speech organs, it can also lead to your child not speaking. This can be, for example, damage or the absence of the vocal cords or the larynx.
- Mutism : If your child suffers from mutism, then it does not speak due to psychological reasons. You can read more about this in our article on mutism .
- Autism : If your child has this disorder, they may be able to speak but remain silent because of the condition.
- Aphasia : Even with aphasia, your child may temporarily stop speaking. If you want to find out more about this topic, you can read our article “ Aphasia ”.
What to do if your child does not speak?
When the reasons why your child is not speaking have been clarified, the appropriate treatment can begin. This is carried out, for example, by a speech therapist, a speech therapist or a psychologist. The earlier your child receives support, the better the chances of success. The doctor or therapist treating you will discuss with you how the treatment of your child who does not speak will look like and whether you can support the therapy yourself with exercises at home.
If your child isn’t speaking, gesturing or writing down what he or she says (for older children) are the best ways for your child to make themselves understood. It is not possible for mute people to articulate themselves vocally. So the child has to find another way of communicating with the world around him. Because although it can understand you and other people around it, it cannot answer in spoken language. That’s why it’s important that you also pay attention to all other signals that your child shows, such as gestures or facial expressions.
If your child doesn’t speak and there’s no chance they can learn to speak spoken language, they should be given a chance to learn sign language. This can be the case, for example, if there is a physical defect or an irreparable brain disorder, or if your child does not speak because it is deaf. Sign language is a combination of signs formed primarily with the hands in combination with facial expressions, visemes (words or syllables spoken silently) and posture. Learning a sign language is comparable in terms of effort to learning a foreign language. In our article “How does sign language work?” you can learn more about it.
Muteness is often associated with deafness. But a person who is deaf does not necessarily have to be mute. Because even without hearing, people are perfectly able to speak spoken language, but this is associated with difficulties.